A brave group of friends from Flintshire will go ‘the full Monty’ in front of a packed audience this weekend to raise awareness of prostate cancer.

Jim Fitzsimmons, from Broughton, said the idea came after a group of celebrities took off their attire in a tribute to The Full Monty film’s 20th anniversary in April this year.

Mr Fitzsimmons said: “My grandad died of prostate cancer nine years ago and after watching the celebrities on ITV this year, I wondered whether some local lads could pull it off.

“I started mentioning it to people in the village and it got traction.”

Mr Fitzsimmons and his friends, Martin Argyle and Gary Duddley-Jones from Broughton, and Steve Hugh and Mark Howcroft from Chester, will be performing the risque dance routine on Saturday at Broughton Wings Sports and Social Club – aka Airbus social club - on Chester Road.

At 7.15pm, the five men whose ages range from 30 to 55, will perform a 15-minute set of eight different dance routines, concluding with “the real Full Monty”.

Mr Fitzsimmons said: “This has always been about prostate cancer awareness and raising money for it.

“One thing we found during research was that men do not get checked. What I’m promoting with this campaign is that there is no harm or embarrassment in getting checked – just do it.”

Although training for the show has been fun and comic, the cause is even closer to home after Mr Fitzsimmons’ father was diagnosed with prostate cancer two weeks ago – around six weeks after the fundraising show was given the
go-ahead.

He said: “My father went in for an operation three weeks ago. After that, they called him back in to say he had stage three prostate cancer.

“At no point did we ever think it would be cancer – but he could have been walking around 20 years ago with it.

“Had it not been for the operation, he could have died.”

The support from the community has been paramount, according to Mr Fitzsimmons.

Airbus social club has offered the room free of charge, and with only nine tickets left to sell from 180, a huge audience is expected.

An application for an adult environment licence was granted by Flintshire council and Airbus social club covered the cost of the licence.

Raffle donations include a signed Manchester United football, cases of lager and wine from Tesco Broughton, and vouchers from restaurants on Broughton retail park.

Saturday night’s DJ offered to play for free, and an up and coming young singer from Flint will also perform.

Mr Fitzsimmons said: “The local community have been great and everyone has pulled together. At no point I thought it would take off as it has.

“We set a target of £5,000 from this event, and at the moment we’re around the £2,500 mark.

“Once we have done the event, I hope we get even closer towards the benchmark.

“Our chances are though that we’ll never walk the streets of Broughton again.”

Another fear for the boys was how they would learn and put together a routine good enough for the stage.

Richard Allen, from Holywell, is a dancer with North Wales dance company Urban Fusion, and after hearing about the charity efforts, has choreographed Saturday’s routine for the men.

Mr Fitzsimmons said: “Richard used to be one of the Dreamboys, who perform all over the UK as strippers. He now helps with their choreography and dance routines.

“For two-and-a-half hours every Thursday for seven weeks, Richard has gone out of his way to train us and help us learn the dance.

“He’s given up a lot of precious time for this. We’re training non-stop. One of the five guys has lost two-and-a-half stone in just seven weeks. That’s how intense the training is.

“People just laugh along but they don’t realise how hard it is.”

Mr Fitzsimmons added that without local support, the event would not be possible and that he “takes his hat off” to his four dancing friends.

He said: “They all have wives and we all have kids. At the end of the day we’re just five regular lads who got together and said we would do it.”

To support Mr Fitzsimmons and his friends in their mission to raise awareness of prostate cancer, donations can be made at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ james-fitzsimmons.